Manufacturing of Low Cost Composites with Porous Structures from Scrap Aluminium (AA2014) Chips

Abstract

In this study, aluminium matrix composites, (AMCs) have been created with porous structures reinforced with brown sugar, BN, graphite powders, boron and also fine glass bubbles. These composites are produced as sponge structures with low thermal and electrical conductivity. The process comprises a simple mixture of aluminium powders obtained from scrap aluminium chips (A2014) and glass bubbles with fresh scrap organic sugar coming from the excess of the production and their blending and finally followed by compacting of the mixture. Addition of the wax is variable from 0 up to 10 %. Sintering is carried out in two steps. First of all, the green compact is heated to eliminate entirely the sugar after that classical sintering of the structure is made under the inert atmosphere. Glass bubbles added at the beginning of the green compact create a net of interconnected porosity. Basically, drop weight test were applied to measure the impact behaviour of these sponge composites and acoustic emission capacity was measured. Microstructural and fracture behaviour were evaluated by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM).